Inbox Zero for Notes

Use this IdeaSpace to post ideas about the Notes Client.

Since the popularization of the internet, the email experience has always been the same. There has never been a great innovation in over 30 years. The capacity grew, contacts were integrated, groups were created but its core functionality was always about sending and receiving messages.

As years went by, we felt that we needed more from the email clients. We've created some workarounds in order to boost email productivity such as tricking the read/unread toggle to mark something that is still waiting to be done even if we have already read the message.

It’s time to re-imagine email and take productivity to the next level. Let’s start with the concept that all email messages are action-based. From simply deleting your newsletter to archiving a communication, paying a bill or working with your team.

For non-actionable email, you should either eliminate it if it’s not useful, save it for someday on a special folder or simply archive it for future reference so you can retrieve it when necessary. Often, messages require action on a specific time in the future. When you receive a time sensitive message like a delivery, meeting presentation or even a bill, you can simply snooze that message and it will be automatically moved out of your inbox so it gets uncluttered. When it’s time to deal with that message, it will be pushed back from the server to the top of your inbox. The idea is to have some extra buttons in the mail template such as:

1- Later Today (in 2-3 hours)

2- Tomorrow (at 8 am of the next day)

3- Next week (next Monday 8 am)

4- In a month (1st day of the next month)

5- Someday (in 30 days)

6- Pick date and time (any day and time)

All of the buttons should be configurable to the users their own way. The snoozed emails will return to your inbox automatically, so you can stop staring at emails you can't deal with now and focus on what's important. When your inbox holds just the stuff you need to address now, email feels lighter and faster. After you experience a clean inbox, you'll wonder how you ever lived without it. In order to accelerate delivery and keep funding at a low level, the concept will be developed using the Notes Mail Template

It sounds like you know exactly what you want, and some of your ideas sound pretty good. The great thing about Notes mail is that you can replace the standard mail design with one of your own making. You can feel free to implement whatever changes you want, and it doesn't take someone else's approval or work.

I don't think IBM should put work into realizing this idea, unless, of course, there's widespread wishes for this solution. You should start developing it, it sounds like a fun project to work on. OpenNTF should be a good place to host it.